A questionnaire measure of major life events was given to 64 subjects
with diagnoses of panic disorder with agoraphobia, 33 subjects with other
anxiety disorders, and 34 nonanxious subjects. Anxious subjects indicated
the life events that had occurred in the 6-month period immediately before
their current disorder began and rated the impact of each event on a
7-point scale. Nonanxious subjects made the same ratings for a 6-month
period 1 1/2-2 years before the study. There was no significant difference
between groups in the number of life events reported. However, anxious
subjects rated these events as having a significantly greater negative
impact than did nonanxious subjects.
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